Theatres & Facilities

Shows rehearse and perform in three theatres equipped with advanced lighting and sound equipment. The Performing Arts Center houses fully equipped scene and costume shops, a small dance/rehearsal studio, make-up and dressing rooms, a script library, a music library, practice rooms equipped with pianos, recording facilities, an extensive costume collection, and a computer lab. A large dance/rehearsal studio is available to the theatre department in Acker Gymnasium.

Laxson Auditorium

Laxson Auditorium was completed in the early 1930s and it has been renovated with state of the art lighting, sound, and counterweight systems. The theatre is the main "Road House" in the Chico area. The auditorium seats 1200 in an American seating style with a large balcony. The traditional elliptical proscenium arch is more than 25 feet high and 36 feet wide. The stage is 30 feet deep with a medium sized orchestra pit. The Theatre Arts Department produces its spring musical in Laxson Auditorium. Many theatre students gain valuable experience as stage hands for the many events which are produced in Laxson.

Harlen Adams Theatre

The Harlen Adams Theatre is the largest of the three performance spaces in the Performing Arts Center. The continental auditorium plan seats about 450. The stage is forty feet wide with ample wing space and a spacious apron that can be raised and lowered to create various stage levels or a large orchestra pit. The Adams Theatre also boasts an advanced computer lighting board, excellent sound recording and playback capabilities, a fully trapped stage floor and a full fly house with newly renovated counterweight system and rigging. The theatre stage has direct access to the shop area.

Larry Wismer Theatre

The Wismer Theatre is our “Black Box” space. It is equipped with flexible seating that can create full or three-quarter arena stage configurations as well as thrust and traverse configurations. The control booth is equipped with an advanced computer lighting board and excellent sound playback and recording capabilities.

Ruth Rowland Taylor Recital Hall

Harlen Adams Theatre is the principle performing venue of the CSU, Chico School of the Arts, presenting cultural offerings in music, dance and theater. Hosting a multitude of performances annually including student recitals, Harlen Adams Theatre is a fully equipped venue with a seating capacity of 486.

Recording Studio

Outstanding facility with state-of-the-art electronics.

Electronic Music Studio

Three excellent studios equipped with the best equipment and software

Mastering/Editing Studios

One of the best in California with computers, synthesizers, and MIDI capabilities.

Music Library

PAC 130Good collection of music scores and recordings

Other Facilities

Band Rehearsal Hall: PAC 132

Acker 204/ARTS 108

These are our larger dance/rehearsal studio spaces, housed across the campus in the athletics building and in the new Humanities and Atrs Building. (There's a smaller one — PAC 10 — in the basement of the Performing Arts Center.) The studio is a huge, open space, well fitted with ballet barres, a wall of mirrors, flexible seating arrangements and set/prop storage, which allow for classroom use as well as workshop productions. The space is where our dance technique, choreography, and dance production classes are taught as well as many of our acting classes. We also use this versatile space in the evenings for rehearsals of many of our productions, including Chico Dance Theatre and the big spring musical.

Scene Shop

The Theatre Arts Department has a full scale scene shop with painting and welding facilities and a large construction area that is directly connected to the Harlen Adams Theatre.

The lower level of the Performing Arts Center, in addition to the small dance/rehearsal studio, contains ample storage space for sets, props and lighting equipment plus a large make-up studio and women’s and men’s dressing rooms.

Music and Theatre Department
California State University, Chico
400 West First Street
Chico, CA 95929
530-898-5152